Supporting increased demand on primary care services during the challenging winter months.

Situation

The Winter months often bring about increased demand for primary care services. This surge in demand can put additional pressure on healthcare providers who are already managing various healthcare needs. Some common reasons for increased demands during the winter period include;

• Seasonal illness – Cold and flu seasons typically lead to a rise in respiratory infections.
• Weather Related Incidents – Adverse weather conditions such as snow and ice can lead to accidents and injuries.
• Vulnerable Populations – Elderly individuals and those with a compromised immune system are often more susceptible to health issues during the winter.
• Mental Health – With general lower mood due to low light levels.

Solution

To target those wanting to manage and maintain their health and well-being needs during the winter months and in line with health providers specific needs of our targeted patient cohort. We worked closely with our UK Health System clients to create a ‘Staying Well This Winter’ Campaign.

This included:

• Reviewing the most common health needs, and with a clinical team mapped the most effective apps, based on reviewing data from the hundreds of health app assessments conducted by ORCHA in each chosen health area.
• A campaign landing page featuring 10 apps that support the most common health needs faced by populations during the winter months. These include Respiratory, Falls Prevention, Mental Health and Children’s Health. We also featured a planning ahead space where the NHS App was available to download for managing appointments and vaccinations demonstrating alignment with national health care initiatives to empower patients to take control of their healthcare needs effectively.
• Communications, to drive the targeted population to the landing page were utilised. This included social media posts, GP practice text messaging, mentions in outpatient letters, and QR code sheets for practitioners.Creating a campaign landing page that was tailored to address the challenges faced by patients and the NHS during this time of year has been a proactive and digitally supportive approach for our clients to adopt.

Results

By featuring the campaign across several of our UK health system client microsites, we have expanded the campaign’s reach to a wider and diverse audience. The landing page has provided valuable tools for individuals to sustain their health and wellbeing, which has likely contributed to the campaign’s success. Running the campaign from November 2023 to February 2023 and seeing nearly 13,000 people access the page indicates sustained interest and engagement throughout its duration.

A further example of the campaign’s success is that 7000 citizens across one of our UK health system client population visited the site which generated 1600 downloads of apps as a result of this specific campaign with a reach of 22% of the targeted population that the campaign was shared . Overall the most downloaded app within the campaign was digital healthy passport which since November has had over 600 people download the app.

The high number of accesses to the landing page reflects the relevance and importance of the campaign in educating individuals on self-managing their health, especially during the winter months but also throughout the year. Increasing awareness and empowering individuals to take charge of their health through digital solutions is invaluable, and this campaign has evidently succeeded in making a meaningful contribution towards this goal.

Winter Pressures – Humber & North Yorkshire (hnyhealthapps.co.uk)